children's chant

[Laurence Horn]

Mark Mandel has it:

>Larry Scroggs <larry at SCROGGS.COM>notes:
>    >>>>>
>Heard at my school in the late 1950s.
>
>Whistle while you work
>Khrushchev is a jerk
>Eisenhower's got the power
>But it doesn't work.
>  <<<<<
>
>Same time frame but with World War II references:
>
>Whistle while you work
>Hitler was a jerk
>Neeny-neeny*
>Hossifini*

= Josephinie, perhaps?  Not that that helps, particularly, but it
might be a covert allusion to Napoleon.

>Mussolini*
>Bit his peeny*

Interestingly, still leaving unresolved the ambiguity between
auto-mordication and allo-.  Those wild and crazy fascists!

>Then it wouldn't work
>
>*These four lines repeat the same tune. As far as I can tell, the second and
>third are just nonsense, and one can only guess how to spell them.
>
>Well, these are CHILDREN'S chants, so no surprise if they are silly and
>snickering.
>
>-- Mark
>[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]